Medal

Silver Holloway medal presented to the militant suffragette Louise Lilley bearing, in black paint, her prison wing number 'Dx3' and cell number '4'. On the reverse is engraved 'L Lilley March 9th to April 29th 1912 HL'. The medal was presented to Louise on her release from Holloway following a two month sentence of hard labour for breaking a window in the War Office.
Louise and her sister Kate were two of the daughters of Tom Lilley, co-owner of the shoe-manufacturing firm Lilley & Skinner. As supporters of the suffragette campaign the Lilley sisters became founding members of the Clacton, Essex branch of the Women's Social and Political Union and actively campaigned for Votes for Women. In March 1912 both sisters were arrested for breaking windows in the War Office and sentenced to two months hard labour in Holloway Prison. Whilst on remand they endured a short period of hunger strike for which, on their release, they were rewarded with prison medals. The the cell numbers marked on the prison medals reveal that the sisters were placed next to each other in Holloway in cells 4 and 5 of DX Wing. Up to 200 suffragettes were imprisoned in Holloway In March 1912. Prison accounts reveal that the women gained comfort and support from the companionship of their fellow suffragettes. Imprisoned alongside Kate and Louise was their close friend Kitty Marshall. In her autobiography Suffragette Escapes & Adventures, Kitty Marshall recounts an incident in Holloway that involved her 'kind friends' the Misses Lilley. She notes that the Lilley sisters helped her find adopted parents for a baby boy, born to a fellow prisoner who was in Holloway for stealing a brooch. The Misses Lilley and Kitty also financially provided for the boy until he was able to earn his own money'.